The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-02-03

q deluson to eight thousand deluded hearers.
Yes, this chimcra OF the gospel is not salts
fed until it goes on and builds itself into the
most permanent architecture, so it seems as
if the world is never going to get rid Of it.
What arc some of the finest buildings in the
world2 St. Paul's, st. Peters, the churches
and cathedrals of all Christendom. Yes, this
of the gospel, this vast delusion
is not satisfied until it projects ITSELF and in
one year gives, contributes, 600
to foreign missions, the work of which
is to make ounces and fools on the
other side of the world-people we have
never seen. Deluded doctors--220 physicians
meeting week by week in London, in the
Union Medical Prayer circle, to worship God.
DeIuded lawyers-the late Lord Cairns, the
highest legal authority in England, the ex-
adviser of the throne, spending his vacation
in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the
Door people of Scotland; Frederick T. FIRE.
linghuysen, once the secretary of state of the
United States, an old fashioned evangelical
Christian an older i'll the Reformed church;
John Bright, deluded Quaker; Henry
Wilson, the vice-president of the Unit
ed States, dying a deluded Method
ist or Congregationalist; Earl OF Kintore.
dying q deluded Presbyterian. The canEi-
balls in South sea, the bushmen of Terra del
Fuego, the wild men Of Australia, putting
down the knives of their cruelty, and cloth
ing themselves in decent apparel-all under
the power of this delusion. Judson and
Doty, and Abeel and Campbell and Will
hams and the 5000 missionaries of the cross,
turning their backs on home and civilization
and comfort, and going out amid the squalor
of heathenism to relieve it, to save it, to help
it, toiling until they dropped into their
graves, dying with no earthly comfort about
them, and going into graves with no appro-
pirate epitaph, when they might have lived
in this country, and lived tor themselves,
and lived luxuriously, and been at last put
into brilliant sepulchre. What delusion.
Yea, this delusion of Christian religion
shows itself in the fact that it goes to those
who are in trouble. Now, it is bad enough
to cheat man when he is well and when he
is prosperous; but this religion comes to a
man when he is sick, and says: "You will be
well again. after while; you are going into
land where there are no coughs and no pleuri-
sizes and no consumptions and no languishing;
take courage and bear up" Yea, this awful
chimera of the gospel comes to the poor and
it says to them: ''You are on your way to
vast estates and to dividends always declar-
able" This delusion of Christianity comes
to the bereft, and it talks of reunion before
the throne and of the cessation of all sorrow
And then to show that this delusion will stop
at absolutely nothing, it goes to the dying
bed and fills the man with anticipations.
How much better it would be for him to have
him die without any more hope than swine
and rats and snakes. That is all. Nothing
more left of him. He will never know any,
thing again. Shovel him under!
The soul is only superior part of the body,
and when the body disintegrates the soul dis
integrates Annihilation, vacancy, everiast-
ing blank, obliteration. Why not present all
that beautiful doctrine to the dying instead
of coming with this hoax, this swindle of the
Christian religion, and filling the dying man
with anticipations of another life, until some
in the last hour have clapped their hands, and
some have shouted and some have sung and
some have been so overwrought with Joy they
could only look ecstatic. Palace gates OPEN
ing they thought; diamonded coronets flash
ing, hands beckoning, orchestras sounding.
Little children dying, actually believing they
saw their departed parents so that, although
the little children had been SO weak and
feeble and sick for weeks, they could not turn
on the'r dying pillow, at the last, In parox-
ysm of rapture uncomfortable, they sprang to
their feet and shouted ''Mother, catch me.
1 am comingl"
And to show the immensity of this delusion
this awful swindle of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, open hospital and bring into that
hospital the deathbeds of great many Chris
tian people, and take you by the hand this
morning, and l walk up and down the wards
of that hospital, and 1 ask few questions
l ask: "Dying Stephen, what have you to
say!n "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" "Dy-
ing John Wesley, what have you to say?"
''The best of all is, God is with u.s." dying
Edward Payson, what have you to say?" ~
float in a sea of glory" dying John Brad
ford, what have you to say2" "If there be
any way of going to Heaven on horseback, or
in a fiery chariot, it is this" "Dying Mean
der, what have you to say9n II am going to
sleep now-good night" dying Mrs Flor
ence Foster, what have you to sayg'
"a pilgrim in the valley, but the
mountain tops are all agleam from peak
to peak" dying Alexander Mather, what
have you to say?" "The Lord, who has taken
care of me fifty years. will not cast me off
now: glory be to God and to the Lamb!
Amen amen, amen, amen!" dying John
Powson, after preaching the gospel SO many
years, what havo you to say?" My death
bed is bed of roses" dying Doctor
Thomas Scott whae have you to say?" "This
is heaven begun" "Dying soldier in the last
war, what have you to say?' "Boys, am
going to the front" dying telegraph
operator on the battlefield of Virginia, what
| have YOU to say?" "The wires are all laid
and the poles are up from Stony Point to
| headquarters" "Dying Paul. what have you
to say?" 81 am ready now to be offered, and
| the time of my departure is at hand; have
| fought the good fight, l have finished my
course, 1 have kept the faith. o death
where is thy sting? o grave, where is thy
victory! Thanks be unto God, who givetl
us the victory through our Lord Jesus
| Christ" o my Lord, my God, what q delu-
sion; what a glorious delusionl Submerge
| me with it, fill my eyes and ears with it, put
| it under my dying head for pillow-this
delusion-spread it over me for a canopy, put
it underneath me for an outspread wing-rol
| it over Inc in ocean surges 10, 700 fathoms
deep! o, If infdelity, and if att eism and il
annihilation are reality, and the Christian
religion is delusion, give me the delusionl
The strong conclusion of every man and
woman in the house is that Christianity pro
ducing such grand results cannot be delu
| sion. A lie, cheat, swindle, an hallucina
ton cannot launch such a glory of the cen
turies Your logic and your common senst
convince you that bad cause cannot produce
an illustrious result; out of the womb of sucl
q monster no such angel can be born. There
are many in this house this morning in thu
galleries and on the main floor, who began
with thinking that the Christian religion wa
stupid farce, who have come to tht
conclusion that it is a reality. Why are yo1
here to-day? Why did you sing this song
Why did you bow your head in the opening
prayer' Why did you bring your family
with you! Why, when tell you of the end
ing of all trials in tho bosom of God, do ther,
stand tears in your eyes-not tears of grief
but tears of joy such as stand in the eyes O
honlesiclz children fer away at school whel
some one talks to them about going home
Why is it that you can be so calmly submis
sive to the death Of your loved one, abou
whose departure you once were 81
angry and SD rebelious? There is some
thing the matter with you. All you
friends have found out there is O grea